PHILADELPHIA — The indoor fireworks devices were in place Monday. The cheerleaders were ready to dance. The announcer was ready to scream. World B. Free was working the room in a sky-blue suit and a black hat.

Concession-stand scents were tempting. The music was loud, too loud, echoing off the many sections of empty blood-red seats. The banners in the rafters fluttered proudly, waiting to be joined later in the week by Allen Iverson’s retired No. 3, even if he will probably have to cover his eyes, not cup his ear.

Some guy showed up in a blonde wig.

There was an NBA game to be played in the Wells Fargo Center and, darn it, the NBA was going to own the moment. It was going to own the Milwaukee Bucks, who were 10-45, and who hadn’t won consecutive games all season. It was going to own the Sixers, who had lost their last 10 and were 15-41. And it was going to own two rosters worth of 30 players almost impossible to identify without a swab for DNA.

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“I can name them all,” Brett Brown said of his half of that posse, part proud of himself, part laughing along at the comic reality that had thrust two former Eastern Conference rivals into reverse. “You’ll hear me say, ‘Byron, Eric, Henry, get that pushed.’”

That would be Byron Mullens and Eric Maynor and Henry Sims, recent acquisitions, all employed because the Sixers are still required nightly to stuff a scorebook with surnames. And wasn’t it just less than two years ago that they were in the seventh game of the Eastern Conference semifinals with Andre Iguodala and Elton Brand, Evan Turner and Jrue Holiday, Spencer Hawes and Lou Williams?

But that’s what the NBA has created with a warped system of player distribution and payroll financing. It has created a situation where two teams, near the end of February, can be playing to try to avoid a moral defeat. But isn’t that what the Sixers organization is accepting — a lost season in exchange for a fruitful draft in four months? Isn’t that the “end game” Brown has envisioned? Isn’t that why the fans don’t even have the energy — or the cruelty — to boo?

“It’s part of the landscape,” Brown said. “It’s part of coaching the Philadelphia 76ers in the year 2014. I like it in a sadistic way.”

Exactly how he meant that was unclear. But he did order a zone press to start the second quarter of a 130-110 loss, and within 12 seconds John Henson was reverse-dunking, half hanging on the rim, rub-it-in style. Two possessions later, the Sixers made an atrocious turnover, prompting a voice in the cheering section, of all safe zones, to crack, “What the … was that?” so loudly that the press and the scouts seated nearby busted out in laughter.

The landscape, indeed.

The Sixers just traded Turner, who was averaging 17.4. They spent most of the day Monday trying to accommodate Danny Granger’s wish to play somewhere else instead, even if it was going to cost them money. They let the Bucks score 43 points in the second quarter, 73 in the first half.

“I get very frustrated, especially when you are taking loss after loss,” said Thad Young, who was active, alert and determined enough to score 28 points and make six steals. “But at the end of the day, it’s all about helping these guys get better and me growing as a player also.”

Sounds great. But at the end of Monday, the Sixers were embarrassing, less than professional in their execution and a chilling insult to the 12,216 who deserved something better, even from a team pointed toward the lottery.

“We’re fourth in the NBA in creating turnovers,” Brown said. “We’re fourth in the NBA in steals. That’s the nature of this year’s team. We’re young and wild. And I don’t mind it.”

They’re young. And, oh, they are wild.

“There are 25 games to play,” Brown said. “And there are fantastic opportunities to be had.”